Call Center Shuts Down
One of the providers of cheap internet in the United States, Charter Communications has shut down their call center in Lexington recently. As are result of the shut down, about fifty-six employees of Charter were laid off from their duties. This was confirmed by the Charter spokesman Michael Pedelty who also said that all the employees who were laid off were full time employees of Charter.
Charter Spectrum is a subsidiary of Charter Communications that was made when Charter acquired Time Warner Cable. The telecom giant then rebranded all the Time Warner Cable offerings to Charter Spectrum. “An important part of Spectrum’s strategy for providing better customer service is larger call centers, where we can deliver information, training and technology to our representatives much more efficiently,” Pedelty said. “At the same time, we know this is a difficult time for our employees in Lexington affected by this decision. We are working directly with them to provide comprehensive severance benefits, including salary continuation, health insurance and outplacement services.”
Pedelty further added that the retail store of Spectrum and their field operations would continue to be working. The call center at Lexington was handling the billing matters of Charter Spectrum. He said that all these calls would now be handled by the Spectrum office in Florence or Louisville to ensure that their subscribers are getting the best internet service.
In the mean time, the city of Lexington is exploring if Charter has violated the 10-year settlement agreement and franchise agreement that were signed in 2014 after many negotiations. “The government is further reviewing the franchise and the terms of the settlement agreement to determine whether a violation exists,” said Susan Straub, who is a spokeswoman for the city.
10-year Settlement Agreement
As per the settlement agreement, Charter “expects to maintain the existing employee base in the Lexington area after Charter acquires control of franchisee” that was formerly held by Time Warner Cable. The agreement says that those employees should be maintained “throughout the term of the franchise, with the hope of increasing its employee base in the Lexington area during that time.”
However, Pedelty did not comment on how many employees would remain in the city of Lexington after layoffs. “This is the second piece of bad news for Lexington since Charter-Spectrum took over. We were led to believe that they would invest in Lexington, but it sounds like they are doing the opposite,” Straub said.
